India couldn’t have had a worse start to the all-important fourth Test at Old Trafford in Manchester. They were bundled out cheaply for a total of 152 runs, with their first four wickets falling at a score of eight runs. Bharath Seervi analyses the Indian top-order collapse and compares it with similar performances in the past.

At the start of the fourth Test at Manchester, India won the toss and elected to bat first. Due to the wet outfield, the start was delayed. But once the match began, the English bowlers did not have to wait for long to grab their first wicket. In fact, within the first six overs India had lost their first four wickets, losing all of them with the scoreboard reading eight runs. Within a span of 13 deliveries, which is first ball of third over to first ball of fifth over, those four wickets were down.

Opener Gautam Gambhir, who made his comeback after 20 months into the Test side, was dismissed for four by Stuart Broad. Followed by him in the next over was a tragedy. India lost both Murali Vijay and Virat Kohli to James Anderson for a duck. To make the situation worse, Cheteshwar Pujara was out for a duck as well in the next over to Stuart Broad. Gambhir was the only one to have opened his account among the top 4.

The eight runs for the loss of four wickets is the joint ninth lowest score for loss of four wickets in a Test innings. And it is the 12th time a team lost its first four wickets without reaching a score of double digit. The first time any team lost its first four wickets with score of less than 10 was in 1888 also at Old Trafford, Manchester. It was the Australian team against England. The table below lists all those 12 occasions.

Lowest team score at the loss of four wickets in a Test inning (9 or less)

Score

Team

Opposition

Venue

Date

Batsmen

Bowlers

Result

0

India

England

Leeds

June 7, 1952

P Roy, DK Gaekwad, MK Mantri, VL Manjrekar

FS Trueman (3), AV Bedser (1)

Lost

2

England

South Africa

Johannesburg

November 25, 1999

MA Butcher, MA Atherton, N Hussain, AJ Stewart

AA Donald (2), SM Pollock (2)

Lost

5

England

Australia

Melbourne

March 7, 1904

TW Hayward, W Rhodes, EG Arnold, PF Warner

A Cotter (2), MA Noble (2)

Lost

6

India

England

The Oval

August 15, 1952

MH Mankad, P Roy, HR Adhikari, VL Manjrekar

FS Trueman (2), AV Bedser (2)

Lost

7

Australia

England

Manchester

August 31, 1888

AC Bannerman, PS McDonnell, GHS Trott, GJ Bonnor

R Peel (2), GA Lohmann (1)

Lost

7

Australia

England

The Oval

August 12, 1896

FA Iredale, J Darling, GHS Trott, G Giffen

JT Hearne (3), R Peel (1)

Lost

7

Australia

England

Brisbane

December 9, 1936

JHW Fingleton, CL Badcock, MW Sievers, DG Bradman

GOB Allen (3), W Voce (1)

Lost

7

Bangladesh

India

Dhaka

May 26, 2007

Javed Omar, Shahriar Nafees, Habibul Bashar, Mohammad Ashraful

Z Khan (3), RP Singh (1)

Lost

8

England

India

Bangalore

February 1, 1977

DL Amiss, JM Brearley, KWR Fletcher, DW Randall

BS Bedi (2), BS Chandrasekhar (1), KD Ghavri (1)

Lost

8

India

England

Manchester

August 7, 2014

M Vijay, G Gambhir, CA Pujara, V Kohli

JM Anderson (2), SCJ Broad (2)

-

9

Australia

Sri Lanka

Moratuwa

September 12, 1992

MA Taylor, TM Moody, DC Boon, ME Waugh

DK Liyanage (3), CPH Ramanayake (1)

Drawn

9

West Indies

Australia

Brisbane

December 1, 1992

DL Haynes, PV Simmons, BC Lara, KLT Athurton

CJ McDermott (3), BA Reid (1)

Drawn

The numbers near the bowlers denote the number of wickets taken by them out of the first four wickets of the opposition.

- In 1952 at Leeds, India became the first and so far the only team to lose four wickets for 0 runs on board.

- In 1888 at Manchester, Australia’s top 4 batsmen were all out for a duck – only such occasion in the history of Test cricket.

- In the same series in 1952, India lost its first four wickets for score of less than 0 twice – at Leeds and The Oval.

The aggregate score of the first four Indian batsmen in the inning was just four runs. It is the joint second lowest aggregate of the first four batsmen in a team’s inning. The lowest is 0 by Australia vs England at Manchester in 1888, which contained four ducks as mentioned above. The previous lowest aggregate for India was 10 runs in the Boxing Day Test of 1996 at Durban against South Africa. The batsmen involved were Vikram Rathour (2), Woorkeri Raman (1), Sourav Ganguly (0) and Sachin Tendulkar (4). The table below lists the necessary details about the instances.

Lowest aggregateruns of the first four batsmen in a Test innings (5 or less)

Total

Team

Against

Venue

Date

Batsman 1

Batsman 2

Batsman 3

Batsman 4

Bowlers

Result

0

Australia

England

Manchester

August 31, 1888

AC Bannerman (0)

PS McDonnell (0)

GHS Trott (0)

GJ Bonnor (0)

R Peel (2), GA Lohmann (1)

Lost

4

England

Australia

Melbourne

March 7, 1904

TW Hayward (0)

W Rhodes (3)

EG Arnold (0)

PF Warner (1)

A Cotter (2), MA Noble (2)

Lost

4

West Indies

Australia

Melbourne

December 26, 1981

DL Haynes (1)

SFAF Bacchus (1)

CEH Croft (0)

IVA Richards (2)

DK Lillee (3), TM Alderman (1)

Lost

4

India

England

Manchester

August 7, 2014

M Vijay (0)

G Gambhir (4)

CA Pujara (0)

V Kohli (0)

JM Anderson (2), SCJ Broad (2)

-

5

England

India

Bangalore

February 1, 1977

DL Amiss (0)

JM Brearley (4)

KWR Fletcher (1)

DW Randall (0)

BS Bedi (2), BS Chandrasekhar (1), KD Ghavri (1)

Lost

For India:

Total

Against

Venue

Date

Batsman 1

Batsman 2

Batsman 3

Batsman 4

Bowlers

Result

4

England

Manchester

August 7, 2014

M Vijay (0)

G Gambhir (4)

CA Pujara (0)

V Kohli (0)

JM Anderson (2), SCJ Broad (2)

-

7

South Africa

Durban

December 28, 1996

V Rathour (2)

WV Raman (1)

SC Ganguly (0)

SR Tendulkar (4)

AA Donald (2), SM Pollock (2)

Lost

9

England

Leeds

June 7, 1952

P Roy (0)

DK Gaekwad (0)

MK Mantri (0)

PR Umrigar (9)

FS Trueman (3), AV Bedser (1)

Lost

10

Pakistan

Kanpur

December 25, 1979

SM Gavaskar (2)

CPS Chauhan (6)

DB Vengsarkar (0)

GR Viswanath (2)

Sikandar Bakht (3), Ehteshamuddin (1)

Drawn

11

South Africa

Port Elizabeth

December 28, 1992

RJ Shastri (5)

WV Raman (0)

SV Manjrekar (6)

SR Tendulkar (0)

AA Donald (2), BM McMillan (1), BN Schultz (1)

Lost

The numbers near the batsmen denote the number of runs scored by them in the inning.

The Indian inning in all had six ducks to end up with. Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Pankaj Singh were the other three batsmen to score ducks adding with the three top order batsmen. Six ducks in the inning is highest ever for India in the history of Test Cricket and it is joint highest overall as well. This was the fourth time a team had six ducks in a Test inning. The previous highest number of ducks in an Indian inning was five ducks on three occasions. The tables below list the highest number of ducks in Test innings.